Harajuku street fashion is one of a myriad of quirks coming from Japan's capital, Tokyo. This culture, which takes its name from a region of the same name of the city, is based on expressing oneself as much as possible and using all kinds of styles together.
Folded, colored clothing, exaggerated make-up, people seeming to be rushed out of animés and mangas with their smiling faces ... Harajuku culture, which has become more and more popular in recent years and influences many areas of popular culture, is just one of the many inspiration resources that Japan has given the world. Harajuku is a street fashion stream based on not recognizing any fashion rule, blending types and styles, and expressing oneself freely. It expresses an eclectic style, a boom of color and layered clothes.
Harajuku is the name of a neighborhood in Shibuya district of Tokyo, the capital city of Japan. It is the name given between the train station of the same name and Omotesandalar Street, where today's clothing stores are located. However, the name of Harajuku has long been known as an alternative fashion and culture center of Japanese youth. Harajuku street fashion, which has spread all over the world and now has an international reputation, expresses its own style of clothing and an alternative culture.
The trend blending East and West
The emergence of Harajuku street fashion dates back to the late 1940s, when the Allies occupied Japan after the Second World War. The Americans who occupied the country after the war built a military center in Shibuya and lived there for a long time. Within a short time, stores for Americans living in the country were opened in Omotesand Street. So many Japanese also moved to this area. The first examples of the trend known as Harajuku street fashion was seen among the Japanese youth mixing the traditional culture of that period with American Western outfits.
As soon as independent designers moved to this region, the region became the center of the alternative culture. Those who lived there defined themselves as “Harajuku crew”. They broke down all norms based on the harmony, smoothness and consistency imposed on them by traditional fashion trends and bring their own norms and make dressing as a form of expression as they wish. With the arrival of many tourists in the country after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, this trend got stronger. A style of freely dressed fashion emerged, using all styles, colors, types and forms together.
Totally authentic
Harajuku fashion is generally based on self-expression in an eclectic style. In doing so, there is one rule: to be completely original. Harajuku style dressers use different styles, dress in layers, change the clothes they buy from the stores according to their own tastes, and combine many eye-catching colors on top of each other.
Harajuku also has its own subcategories. Some dress as Victorian porcelain dolls, some are known as “Lolita” or “Gothic lolita”. Here are the other popular categories: “Cosplay”, meaning dressed as a character belonging to popular culture, “gyaru”, meaning dressed as a little girl, “ganguro”, meaning having a dark face, “yamanba”, based on Japanese traditional art, “kawaii”, meaning cute, and “decora”, which is a whole series of colors. Most of the time these categories are complex in their own way. The only thing that matters is to be original and smile as much as you can!
The increasing interest of the mainstream
Harajuku culture took its main rise in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The region, which became the center of the young people who expressed themselves in this culture, increased its fame and gained international fame. The streets of Omotesand and the surrounding areas were closed to the streets on Sundays, and it began to host events where young people from this culture came together and presented a collective street show. According to some social scientists, this culture was a form of youth's rebellion against the mainstream and the normative codes imposed on them.
With the increasingly popular Harajuku culture surpassing the borders of the country and continuing its repercussions all over the world, the mainstream popular culture has not been unresponsive to this. In the beginning, the inspiration of Gwen Stefani's Harajuku culture in the 2000s, the Harajuku Girls who dressed in accordance with this trend and went on a tour of the same name as Harajuku Girls brought Harajuku into the field of popular culture. According to some Japanese who witnessed the birth of this culture, Harajuku became a popular culture product with great media interest, which actually was against its ideology.
Its effect doesn’t seem to end
Today, the district that gives its name to the culture has become one of the fashion centers of Tokyo. Omotesand Street has stores of almost all major fashion companies. According to some, these are the developments that commercialize a culture that has emerged to revolt to the mainstream fashion norms.
One of the main features of Harajuku culture is that it has evolved and been developed continuously over the years. Harajuku is a culture that has continued to evolve by keeping pace with the conditions of the period since the 1940s. This is due to the fact that instead of creating certain fashion rules, it gives everyone the freedom to wear what they want. It never goes out of fashion because it's always changing. According to this conception, you're chich as long as you express yourself and dare to unite everything you wear and what you think. Therefore, Harajuku's effect does not seem to be over or forgotten.
